Cities in Post Liberalization Era: case of Speculative urbanism in Dholera Special Investment Region, Gujarat

  Pooja Raval

Cities post Industrialization have conceived cities as product of global aspiration and identity. This paper attempts to understand the transformative model of governance adopted in development of the Dholera Special Investment Region in the domain of private partnership and exclusive planning strategies. It explores the role of speculation and making the city a spectacle in the planning of Dholera Special Investment Region. Working on the intersection of these broad theories of the mode of governance, it analyses the Special Investment Region Act, as a facilitator to the growth corridor project and investigates the role of the State in the conceptualization and execution of mega-project. The greenfield project reflects the transnational circular economy and urban policies that have brought a paradigm shift in the planning and development of cities in Neo-Liberal Era. It investigates the implications of SIR Act, 2009 on a greenfield project in reference to the right to the city. The entrepreneurial nature of the urban governance has helped to consolidate and speculate large parcels of land together for the project. These spaces exhibit the power relations between nation and the state with a unique economic model exclusively curated for the urban development in that urban space. Cities in last decade were engines of Industrial growth and were centers of capital accumulation for large infrastructure projects and served as investment destinations. Inspired by the entrepreneurial agendas the city planning exercise is now focused on investments from Public-Private Partnerships, Non- State Organizations and Global Finance Hubs. The emergent planning policies facilitate their involvement by identifying profit-oriented mega projects like Industrial Hub, Business district, International Airport in absence of demand from the grassroots. This paper investigates the nature of State and its parastatals in conceptualization of the Dholera SIR in order to understand the politics and economic model of urban governance

Keywords- Dholera Special Investment Region, Worlding strategy, Special Investment Region Act, Neo-Liberal Era

Unique Identification Number - IJEDR2202007
Page Number(s) - 42-48
Pubished in - Volume 10 | Issue 2 | May 2022
DOI (Digital Object Identifier) -   
Publisher - IJEDR (ISSN - 2321-9939)

  Pooja Raval,   "Cities in Post Liberalization Era: case of Speculative urbanism in Dholera Special Investment Region, Gujarat", International Journal of Engineering Development and Research (IJEDR), ISSN:2321-9939, Volume.10, Issue 2, pp.42-48, May 2022, Available at :http://www.ijedr.org/papers/IJEDR2202007.pdf